Carla Bruni defends album's 'sexually charged' lyrics

Washington, Aug 9 : French President Nicolas Sarkozy's pop star wife Carla Bruni has hit back at critics who have panned sexually charged lyrics of her new album.

Conservatives claim some of Bruni's songs about drugs and sex on her latest album Comme Si de Rien N'etait (As If Nothing Had Happened) are inappropriate for the wife of a government official.

In one song, the singer compares being in love to an addictive drug, singing: "You are my drug/More deadly than Afghan heroin/More dangerous than Colombian white."

The lyric has been lambasted by Colombia's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Fernando Araujo, who insisted the illegal drug link is "painful" for Colombia, and shouldn't feature in a song by the wife of a world leader.

But Bruni insists she isn't fazed by the uproar, and finds it flattering people still listen to her music.